There is a recognised need for reform of research assessment practices, both in Europe and beyond. However, despite influential initiatives like DORA and CoARA, progress remains slow, partly because research organisations, policymakers, and reform advocates lack evidence to guide their reform efforts.

REALISE (Responsible Evaluation and Assessment Leading to Inclusive Scholarly Excellence) is a new Horizon Europe-funded project that started on the 1st of September. It pursues an ambitious research agenda dedicated to creating a systematic evidence base for research assessment reform, leveraging strong existing links to key initiatives. Led by the Know Center, the project consortium encompasses 9 institutions across 8 EU countries (Austria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Poland and Bulgaria). The REALISE project team combines excellence in both empirically and conceptually grounded research in domains such as research evaluation, scholarly communication, and academic communities with hands-on experience in designing and assessing interventions. The European Research Area (ERA), a key policy instrument for driving research and innovation, has identified research assessment reform as essential to its 2025–2027 policy agenda. The goal is to create an assessment system that recognises a wider range of practices, outputs and behaviours, and rewards openness, collaboration and societal engagement.

REALISE will support this shift by systematically investigating alternative assessment methods and tools, as well as how reforms are implemented, to build knowledge on innovative approaches to assessment reform and institutional culture change. Collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, the project will create a knowledge base that synthesises and expands our current evidence regarding what works, how and why, in reforming research assessment towards this vision. REALISE will result in:

• an online, AI-enabled platform synthesising current knowledge on research assessment reform

• new evidence on the efficacy and impact of different types of research assessment tools and methods

• a practical, validated framework for guiding implementation of responsible research assessment in institutions and systems at different stages of reform readiness

• recommendations for effective implementation of research assessment reform.

Over its three-year lifespan, REALISE will ensure that research assessment reforms build upon a rigorous base of evidence, ultimately developing pathways to more inclusive and responsible research assessment practices, identifying a wider range of outputs and activities, and bettering the quality, societal impact and performance of research, institutions and researchers across Europe.
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REALISE partners:

• KNOW CENTER RESEARCH GMBH (KNOW), coordinator - Austria

• UNIVERSITEIT LEIDEN (ULEI) - Netherlands

• STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT (SRU) - Netherlands

• THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH (UEDIN) - United Kingdom

• AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS (CSIC) - Spain

• UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA (UCOIMBRA) - Portugal

• TIETEELLISTEN SEURAIN VALTUUSKUNNASTA (TSV) - Finland

• UNIWERSYTET SWPS (SWPS UNIVERSITY) - Poland

• PENSOFT PUBLISHERS (PENSOFT) - Bulgaria

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REALISE receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.101291517. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the EU nor the European Research Executive Agency (REA) can be held responsible for them.